Computer-based handwriting recognition systems, can be used for characters that are written directly onto a touch sensitive input (e.g., screen), and/or for characters scanned from a written document. When characters are written onto a screen, for example, to be recognized (e.g., and digitized) it is often referred to as online recognition. When a user inputs handwritten characters onto a screen, for example, by writing with a stylus onto a touch-sensitive screen of a handheld device, the device may be oriented in any way, and the input may also be oriented in a variety of ways. Recognition systems usually comprise a character classifier that compares the written unknown sample against a trained model. Users of the handwriting recognizers prefer that it yields accurate results; however, as input orientations may vary from device to device and user to user, accuracy of the recognition of the input characters may be hampered by affine distortion provided by various orientations.